Back in Vermont, Leahy discusses future

Topics include budgetary cuts, re-election

Oct. 18, 2013

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, talks with the press Wednesday at his office in Burlington after arriving back in the state. The night before, he counted votes after agreement was brokered by the Senate's top Democrat, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and its Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. / RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS

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Free Press Staff Writer

A day after Congress voted to end the federal shutdown at least until mid-January, Sen. Patrick Leahy was back in Vermont.

Leahy, who continued to characterize the shutdown as unnecessary and as the work of extremists, offered only generalities about the direction he thinks the federal budget and the deficit should go as negotiations continue. As the senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Leahy will be on the budget conference committee.

No need to cut Social Security, as some have argued, Leahy said, but he supports asking the wealthy to pay more into the program.

As to what should be in the budget, Leahy said that instead of spending money on bridges and schools in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States should be investing in those items here. Asked if that meant cutting military or other international spending, Leahy said, “We have to look at everything in the budget. There’s nothing off the table.”

Leahy said he also wants Congress to focus on passing farm and immigration bills that have been pending. President Barack Obama cited both of those Thursday as his priorities, too.

Leahy, 73, who is up for re-election in 2016, said he’ll be using some of the $1.6 million he’s raised in campaign money to help other Democratic senators next election. As to his own re-election, he said, “I always make that decision the year before. If I had to make the decision today, of course, I’d run.”

Congress voted late Wednesday on a plan to reopen the government and increase the U.S. borrowing limit for several months.

Leahy returned to Vermont from Washington early Thursday morning, shortly after midnight.

Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., also returned to Vermont on Thursday and was working in his Burlington office.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., flew early Thursday to Mississippi, where he is the keynote speaker on a tour through southern states for a progressive political action committee called South Forward.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., will be a member of the conference committee for the Farm Bill and other spending bills, but not the overall budget bill. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is one of 29 members of the budget conference committee. The information was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.